Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 180, 20 October 1927, Page 13

Trades and the Workers

* BY

BOXWOOD

UNION MEETINGS DUE

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Mr. J. Mortensen, secretary of the Shop Assistants’ Union, is away on a tour of the Cambridge, Hamilton and Te Awamutu districts.

The Building Trades Registration Bill is a thing of the future. It has been bandied about a good deal between parties and is now in the hands of the Painters’ Federation Parliamentary Committee, which, is looking it over. There is practically no hope of it coming before the House until next session at the earliest.

Polling took place on Tuesday to select the Auckland Watersiders’ delegates to the New Zealand Federation of Waterside Workers’ conference next month. Counting the votes had not been completed yesterday, the polling being on the preferential system which, registered in the union’s rules, has been for years employed with complete satisfaction. The conference is a migratory affair and this year the venue is to be Timaru. Using- the Whip The amendment to the Shops and Offices Act relating to milkmen provides at present for an open start. That is to say, that the amendment will not limit the time of starting in any way. It is understood that in the way of negotiations the union has stipulated a 3 o’clock start and a six-day week to which the Minister has replied with an offer of 3 o’clock start and a seven-day week. So far that would appear a fair wrangle with the Minister holding the whip. But the suggestion is that he has begun to wield his whip in these terms that if the union does not come to his figure ho will put the amendments through with the open start. Now, where is sweet reasonableness in that attitude? Opinions Vary Once the Minister of Labour had his mind set on the Apprenticeship Amendments lie never deviated a hairs’ breadth. He rather staggered Mr. IT. Campbell who went before the Labour Bills Committee to oppose the abolition of the district quota on behalf of the workers’ representatives on Auckland Apprenticeship Committees. Before the committee Mr. Campbell was asked why the Auckland committees had hot opposed the abolition of the district quota when their opinions were asked. Then the Minister said that he had had wide support from apprenticeship committees in deciding to abolish the district quota. Among them he quoted seven committees in Christchurch, Hamilton Plumbers. Napier Carpenters, Masterton Building Trades, Masterton Engineers, Palmerston North Plumbers, Invercargill combined committees. Mr. Campbell put up a good fight, but the question was decided beforehand. He at least succeeded in converting Mr. Howard, M.P., into opposing the Bill.

Nervy Power Board Rather a keystone incident followed the activities of the Secretary of the Educational Workers’ Union in the Gisborne district, where he went, recently, organising bent. The Poverty Bay Power Board made haste to forestall the formation of a union in the district by giving a rise of Id an hour all round to its employees, so that now assistants are receiving Is lOid to Is ll&d an hour, gangers 2s 3d to 2s 4d and linesmen 2s to 2s Id. Considering, however, that the board, by offering a bribe like this is evading the payment of many allowances and rates which an award would secure to the workers, it is an obvious piece of specious business. But it is just an indication of the value of industrial organisation. Without any effort on the union’s side the board hastens with some conciliatory peace offering. That is good business—perhaps not so much for the board as for its employees. But the best was to follow. Word was passed round by word of

mouth from the gangers asking men to attend a meeting to discuss the proposal for a union. When the crowd rolled up the hall was packed with board officials. So somebody asked that the convener take the chair, but there was no one forthcoming. The wonder is just as small that a resolution was passed that the meeting have nothing to do with the union as the respect to which such a resolution is entitled.

Contentious Amendments The Shops and Offices Act amendments which the House is to discuss this week are full of contentious material. Members have been circularised and counter-circularised on the Minister’s errors—of omission and commission. That ancient and contemptible provision in the present Bill that clerks in receipt of £2OO a year are not entitled to any overtime is preserved, but the Auckland Gas Clerks’ Union has taken steps to have the clause stirred up in the House. Local members and the Labour Opposition particularly are expected to point out this miserable provision and suggest raising the minimum to at least £4OO. As it stands the provision is a ridiculous relic of the days when £4 a week was considered a princely emolument, but those days are gone. Another provocative provision is the practical abolition of the meal allowance. The position under the amendments is that if the employer thinks a worker can reasonably get home to eat in the time allowed then no meal allowance is payable. What an employer considers reasonable under the provisions may be anything and eventually prove something very unreasonable. The crowning injustice in the Act is the necessity imposed on certain workers, milkmen and others, of giving seven hours’ stable time free to their employers. Why it is there and why it is preserved is a mystery which could not be explained away by the Government’s dearest friends. There is room for a suggestion to the Minister that the hardest terms he can reasonably impose on these workers is 48 hours without any stable time. Anything more is sheer savagery.

Wages in Australia The Commonwealth Statistician, Mr. Charles H. Wickens, in his annual labour report for 1926 which was issued on October 6, states: “While Australian wage rates increased during 1926 the increase in the cost of food, groceries and housing was slightly greater, making the' effective, or real wages lower than in 1925. “Changes in rates of wage during 1926 affected 1,221,760 persons. These changes resulted in an average increase of Is 4d a week. The average nominal rate of wage at the end of De-. cember, 1926, was for males 99s 4d and for females 51s Bd, compared with 96s 9d and 50s 7d respectively, for 1925. “There was a further decrease in the average number of hours constituting a week’s work. The average at the end of 1926 was 45.57 hours, compared with 46.44 in 1925, and 48.93 in 1914. “An international comparison of wages and cost of food shows that “real” wages are highest in Philadelphia, followed in the order by Ottawa, Melbourne, Sydney, Copenhagen and London..” Wholesale prices throughout Australia decreased by 0.7 per cent, during 1926, states the report, but retail prices of food and groceries increased by 2.5 per cent. The cost of housing accommodation increased by 1.8 per cent., and the increase of food, groceries, and housing combined was 2.3 per cent. The result of the annual inquiry into the cost of food, groceries, and housing accommodation in 200 towns is given. The average cost of food, groceries and rent of houses having five rooms was, for the 200 towns as a whole, 0.7 per cent, greater in November, 1926, than in November, 1925.